PILSEN — The iconic Nuevo Leon restaurant building that was ravaged by a fire four months ago was demolished Wednesday.
It was an emotional day for the Gutierrez family, who operated the Mexican restaurant on 18th Street for more than 53 years.
"For me, for my father, it was very personal," Danny Gutierrez Jr. said Wednesday evening.
The building was where 44-year-old Gutierrez Jr.'s grandmother and grandfather lived upstairs, where he played with flour sacks as his mother made flour tortillas from scratch, where he, under the guidance of his father, Danny Gutierrez Sr., would eventually learn to cook and run the restaurant's busy floor.
"It was a sad day. You just want to put it behind you, but it's so difficult," he said, after the walls came down. "But we're excited about what's to come."
In early December, an extra-alarm fire that raged for three hours ravaged the 53-year-old Nuevo Leon restaurant. No one was injured, but the fire severely damaged the three-story building and displaced dozens of workers.
Now that the original building has been torn down, owners plan to meet with architects to design the restaurant's "reincarnation," Gutierrez Jr. said. If all goes well, the new Nuevo Leon could open in June 2017 — "maybe Father's Day," he said.
For now, the Gutierrez family plans to build a smaller Nuevo Leon restaurant in the 1515 W. 18th St. building, which housed the restaurant before it expanded into a neighboring building in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Construction is expected to start within the next few months.
Gutierrez Jr. said in January that the new restaurant would seat about 120 people and have a small banquet facility on the second floor. The old Nuevo Leon sat about 160 people.
Also in January, the Gutierrez family opened Cantón Regio, a Mexican steakhouse, across the street. The new restaurant took over the former Nayarit nightclub, which his 69-year-old father Danny Gutierrez Sr. operated for 17 years in the building.
As a reminder of the past, one of the colorful bricks from Nuevo Leon's facade will be displayed at Cantón Regio.
Business at the new restaurant is going well, but customers are homesick for Nuevo Leon, Gutierrez Jr. said.
"They sure love their Nuevo Leon food," he said. "We love to do this, to feed the community. We're not going anywhere."
Nuevo Leon owner Danny Gutierrez Sr. (r.) picks up bricks after the restaurant building was demolished this week. [Nuevo Leon Facebook]
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